Wednesday, 29 July 2009

I was quite surprised with how many people came to my blog and read my earlier post on how to create a blank Struts2 project and start using this framework in NetBeans 6.5

With a release of new Eclipse, I thought it would be interesting to do the same thing, but now in this IDE.
As you probably already know, Eclipse is one of the famous and certainly one of the best Java IDEs.
Well, about a month ago people from Eclipse foundation released a 3.5 version of Eclipse, called Galileo.

I develop almost all my project using NetBeans, and have never done any Struts2 programming using Eclipse.
That is why I decided to write a post on how to create a Struts2 example in new Eclipse release: Galileo. That's quite fun because that way I (we) get to learn on how to use Struts2 in Eclipse, and get to see Galileo in action a little bit closer…Note: In this post, I’ll use much of the text , entire source code and application logic from my previous post and concetrate only on the differences between these two IDEs.

Next thing we need is Struts2 itself. Go to http://struts.apache.org/2.x/index.html and download the latest version of Struts2.
I downloaded struts-2.1.6-all.zip
You won't be needing all the libraries in it. Just 6 of them. Because of this, you can download essential dependencies only.

When you download one of these archives, extract it to some location, for example: c:\Struts2

It is now time to start a new project. Start Eclipse Galileo.

Click file --> new --> Dynamic web project

Let’s call this project GalileoStruts2Example
I’ll use Tomcat 6 . You can use some other server that you have available , it is completely up to you.

Click Finish.

Your project tree will look like this:

Now, in order to use Struts2 libraries, let's add those essential dependencies to project:

Most of the tutorials on the web are written for older version of struts2, at the time when commons-fileupload-1.2.1.jar was not mandatory, so even when following all the steps in tutorial , you just couldn't get your project to work ( with newer version of Struts2 ) !

Now, your project will look like this:

Now, copy these six JARs into the “lib” folder located in the root of WEB-INF folder.

These files will be uploaded to App Server , and a deployed application will use it.
We could put this files into main lib folder of application server, but it is most probably better this way...

We need to create one more folder in the root of the WEB-INF , and name it "classes".
This is where you will create struts.xml, and if needed - a struts.properties file.

I'll put all my JSP's into new folder, "jsp" , which I will create in the root of "WebContent" folder.

All Java code that we write, we will place into some package in the "Java Resources: src" folder.
I'll create one now, called "struts2Example" and a "Hello" Class in it.
If you use validaton, put all Validation XMLs inside class's package too...

This is how, at minimum, your Struts2 project structure should look like.

I'll create one small Struts2 application now. Nothing complicated.
User will enter his name, and press "submit" and other page will open , saying Hello to this user.

struts.xml must be located in “classes” folder located in the root of WEB-INF folder:

This is where place a file struts.properties if we need to use it, as well…

web.xml:

And if we press “Run” button, and choose a server on which it is supposed to run

we’ll get something looking like this:

But don't worry. Everything is OK, we just didin't handle default page...
If we append entername.action on the URL , our new application will open:

If we do not enter name and press “submit”:

but if we do enter name and press “Submit”:

So, I hope I helped you to understand how to create an empty struts2 project in Eclipse Galileo.

At the end, our project looked like this:

A small conclusion of mine: great thing about Eclipse is that you can do just about everything with it , with just a little few extra settings and installations...
Unfortunately, for me - many things and options remained a little bit more complicated and unintuitive regarding to some other IDEs. That is such a shame!
Nevertheless , for me , Eclipse continues to be one of the best choices!.

Thursday, 9 July 2009

If you decide to start learning and using struts2, probably one of the first things you think about is which IDE to use, and what you need in order to create and run a Struts2 project...

If you search the web , you'll find many tutorials on how to create a struts2 project, and start developing.
This is what I did when I was starting, and soon find out that nothing I found on the web worked for me in proper manner...

So, I decided to create a small tutorial on how to create an empty struts2 project , in order to help others, and save their time.
Not to teach you Struts2, but to help you create a working Struts2 project!

Ok, I will use NetBeans 6.5, and a Tomcat 6 that comes with it...

First of all, go to http://struts.apache.org/2.x/index.html and download the latest version of Struts2.
I downloaded struts-2.1.6-all.zip
You won't be needing all the libraries in it. Just 6 of them. Because of this, you can download essential dependencies only.

When you download one of these files, extract it to some location, for example: c:\Struts2
It is now time to start a new project. Start NetBeans.

Click File -> New project -> Java web -> Web application

Let's name our project "Struts2Example". Click "next".

Choose which server you wish to use ( I selected Tomcat 6 ), set JavaEE to version 5, and leave ContextPath to be /Struts2Example

You can click "finish" now.
If you click "next" DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT choose available ( older version ) of struts under "frameworks".

Your project tree will look this:

Now, in order to use Struts2 libraries, let's add those essential dependencies to project:

Right click on "Libraries" folder and then click "Add JAR/folder". A dialog will open.
Go to folder where you extracted Struts2 libraries and select ( add to project ) following files:

Most of the tutorials on the web are written for older version of struts2, at the time when commons-fileupload-1.2.1.jar was not mandatory, so even when following all the steps in tutorial , you just couldn't get your project to work ( with newer version of Struts2 ) !

Now, your project will loke like this:

Now, in the root of WEB-INF folder create a new folder , and name it "lib".

Copy these six JARs into this new folder.

These files will be uploaded to App Server , and a deployed application will use it.

We could put this files into main lib folder of application server, but it is most probably better this way...

We need to create one more folder in the root of the WEB-INF , and name it "classes".
This is where you will create struts.xml, and if needed - a struts.properties file.

I'll put all my JSP's into new folder, "jsp" , which I will create in the root of "Web Pages" folder.

All Java code that we write, we will place into some package in the "Source Packages" folder.
I'll create one now, called "Struts2Example" and a "Hello" Class in it.
If you use validaton, put all Validation XMLs inside class's package too...

This is how, at minimum, your Struts2 project structure should look like.

I'll create one small Struts2 application now. Nothing complicated.
User will enter his name, and press "submit" and other page will open , saying Hello to this user.

So, I hope I helped you to understand how to create an empty struts2 project in NetBeans.

At the end, our project looked like this:

There's more to it. For example, if you wish to override some theme's behaviour ( for example "simple" ) you create folders
template/theme_name ( for example template/simple ) and it you copy all the original files from this theme ( from struts2-core-X.X.X.jar ) and edit them in this folder...